Pippi #2
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him. “Do you want to talk?”
“Later.” He petted my hair. “Later.” His mouth quirked. “Your eyes are sparkling tonight, Pippi. Did you finish it?”
I squeezed his midsection. “Mission accomplished.”
He whooped. “Congratulations! Can I read it?”
“No.”
He pouted.
“It’s probably awful.”
“Oh psssst…” He swatted my bottom. “I’m sure it’s not awful . Unless it ends with the girl dying. ” Alistair cupped my cheek and flashed me a serious look. “Is your book going to make me cry?”
“No. Happy endings all around in this one. For everyone. Even the villain…somewhat. Which is a sight better than the villain of our story.”
Rune Bloodworth still lived in the sea near the defunct Niverwick Isle. As far as we knew, anyway. That was the last place he’d been spotted six months ago.
No one had heard from Onyx since she’d left the isle last year.
“Excellent. Well…” Alistair tugged me in for a kiss that had my toes curling, and then whirled away.
“Gosh… slow , Alistair. We’ve talked about this.” I laughed as he sprinted back to the door. “Walk mode. I know you’ve got one.”
“That’s boring.” He waved his arm dismissively and snatched a bag from the doorway. “I’ve got a gift for you.”
“Oh yeah? What a coincidence. I’ve got one for you too.”
Which, it wasn’t a coincidence.
Today was May first, after all.
A full year since I’d dipped my bare-naked bottom into the water and somehow caught the love of my life.
Alistair leapt onto the countertop, parking his butt against the end and swinging his long legs along the side.
That poor countertop…
One day, when my landlord asked “ How did you dent a solid piece of marble?” it would be very hard to explain that I lived with a six-and-a-half-foot golden retriever who bounced off everything .
“I actually have two gifts for you,” Alistair said. “One serious and one, well…” He grinned coyly. “Which would you like first?”
“After that face you just pulled? Might as well lay the good one on me first.”
He gave his butt an excited wriggle—almost exactly like a dog wagging its tail—and plucked a neatly wrapped clothing box from the bag.
“Now,” he started, barely even giving me enough time to pull at the wrapping paper, “you don’t have to wear it. Of course, if you want to, I won’t complain. But it’s completely optional.”
“I have to open it first…I…Oh my freaking—” I gasped when I pried the lid off the clothing box and peeped the teeny bikini draped inside.
Not just a bikini, though.
“Is this seaweed?” I choked.
“Well, it’s designed to look like seaweed.” Alistair waggled his eyebrows. “But it’ll stay on better than the real stuff.”
And the giggles got me. I laughed until I doubled over and had to clutch at Alistair for support.
“Like I said, you don’t need to wear it,” Alistair chuckled.
“Oh, I’ll definitely wear it. But it’ll be for your eyes only.”
Arousal squiggled through him.
I placed the box gingerly on the counter and hugged him. “But this is actually hilarious because, well, we must’ve been on the same thought train.”
“Great minds usually are.” He bit his lip in a hammy, yet seductive, sort of way. “Did you get me a bikini too, Pippi?”
“No. Better.” I crossed into my living room and grabbed the wrapped shoe box from where I’d placed it on the sofa.
It took him a second, when he took the box from me, opened it, and pulled out the red paddy hat. I started to get nervous that maybe he wouldn’t get it.
But then I felt his glee, burbling off him a half a second before his sonic boom rattled the paintings in my apartment. “This is your blouse ?”
“Sure is. I found someone who could custom-make the hat. I think she thought I was crazy, having her use the blouse. Especially since it was still in such nice condition.”
Alistair shook the cap loose and popped it over his curls, tilting his head to the side to model it for me. “How stylish do I look?”
“Oh, very.”
Stars, he was adorable, with the hat perched precariously on top of his wild mop of hair.
It joggled, clinging on for dear life, when Alistair reached over and hauled me into his arms, settling me between his thighs, so I could rest my hip against him.
“Thank you, Pippi,” he murmured into my hair.
“I love it. It’ll be my favorite hat forever. ”
For a minute, two, three…we stood there. Cuddling. Kissing. Petting and arousing each other.
“Would you like your serious gift now?” Alistair mumbled against my lips.
“Does the serious gift involve you naked in bed?”
He clicked his tongue and nibbled on my jaw. “That’s the after- gift, Pippi.”
“Ah.”
“The serious gift is actually serious. And not really a gift, more of a suggestion.” He nudged me away slightly, so he could reach into his bag and pull out a wad of papers.
It took me a minute to leaf through those papers and register what they were.
“This is a house,” I said dumbly.
“About forty-five minutes from here.” Nerves rolled off Alistair—a rarity for him—as he drummed his heel against the bottom of the counter.
“Might be too far for you to commute to work? But…well, I figured we could take a look at it tomorrow. It backs right up to the state park, which is what appealed to me. I know you like hiking. You could literally walk out the back door and go. And Cocoa”—he bent his head, peeping at the snoozing cat under my desk—“would get lots of birdwatching in. But…” He exhaled.
“Like I said, it’s only a suggestion. I have a connection.
I told them I was interested, but nothing’s been done beyond that.
If you hate the idea, or hate the house, I— ummmpfffff !
” He bit off, moaning, when I wrapped my arms around his neck and latched my mouth to his.
I fondled him as we kissed, dragging my nails over his navy blue button-up and clawed them into the black jeans cradling his thighs. He squirmed and mumbled into my mouth.
It was so easy to make him writhe. So easy to coax delectable little grunts and mewls out of his chest. And I loved that about him too.
“I guess you’re not opposed to the suggestion?” he panted when I drew away.
“You’d guess right.” I shimmied my body between his legs, rubbing at his crotch, grinning when he gave a breathy sigh. “This is…Gosh. I’m…I might be a little overwhelmed. And a lot horny.”
“You don’t say?” He bent, nipping, not so gently, at my earlobe.
“Should I slip into that little bikini…?”
His eyes darkened. “Oh, I’d love it if you would.”
“And let you take it off me?”
“I’d love that even more.” He scooched me against him and tugged at the collar of my shirt, hauling it to the side so his mouth had full access to that ticklish area between my neck and shoulder.
And it was my turn to groan and pant as he lavished the area, suckling until I strained, aching for more.
A shot of mischief punched through my chest a half a second before he puckered his lips against the side of my throat and blew an obscenely loud raspberry.
“Alistair!” I shrieked, turning to give him a playful swat.
He beamed and dodged my blow, which sent the dang hat weebling over his head, and spiraled me into another giggle fit.
“I think we need to lose the hat,” I wheezed.
“Never.” He clamped it more firmly on his head and then gave me a lopsided grin. “You’re my favorite, Pippi. Always.”
“And you’re a sappy goof,” I chucked his chin, “but you’re my goof.”
THE END